The Cost to be Together
by Keikoku Kumori
Summary: Shikamaru begins to realize that what he feels for Temari might be more than the average friendship, if you can call it that. But when Temari gets severely injured because of him, Shikamaru must decide if these feelings are worth it all. TemaxShika
1. Chapter 1: Peace for a Change

_Hello everyone My pen name is usually Keikoku, but it's easier to refer to me as DNA, since my screename is DNAgurl --; This is the first fanfic I've ever written that I actually submitted and is lengthy enough to be a chapter. It'd be longer once the story picks up, I swear! -- I'm really busy lately though, so I might be a bit slow when it comes to updating, but if you all review and leave comments, I'd be very happy! Remember that reviews are my source of motivation to continue XD _

_Note: I don't own Naruto or any of the character, unfortunately, because they belong to Kishimoto-sama :D Oh, what I would do with them if I owned the characters…._

The Cost to be Together

Chapter 1: Peace for a Change

Shikamaru walked slowly down the long path through the forest. He was exhausted from his mission, and he looked forward to a nice, long nap in the hills, and watching the clouds float gently by. As he came closer and closer to his village, he began to hear sounds floating from beyond the gates and down the walkway. Sounds of children playing, the shopkeepers down in the markets call out bargains. He began to smell the scent of fried dumplings, and the warm aroma of newly brewed tea. He had not been back to the village for many days, and now is glad to see it as he left it.

As he continued down the path, he called out to some of his friends as he passed by them. It was sort of an unplanned holiday today. Before he set off, Tsunade-sama told him that he'd be handling the last A-ranked mission of the week. The annual meeting of the Kages from all villages was coming up, and thus there was a cessation in activities among the 5 great nations. Genins would continue with their D-ranked missions, for those were trivial, but the chunnin and jounins could now take a long awaited rest during this period of peace.

He shouted out to Ino, who was putting out flowers from the inside of her shop, and also to Chouji, who, to no one's surprise, was eating from his lunch box on a bench. His whole team's parents were all attempting to fix the roof the flower shop, which had smashed a few weeks ago when Sakura was chasing after Naruto for doing something perverted again. As he passed by Ichiraku's ramen shop, he spotted Naruto with Kakashi and Iruka-sensei.

Shikamaru bought dango from a nearby stall, and began eating under a tree. Life was so peaceful at this moment, yet he had an uneasy feeling. Having an IQ of over 200, his intuition was based more on facts than feelings, and thus it was unsafe to simply dismiss his concerns. He got up, brushing off the dirt from his pants, and headed off towards the hokage's building.

Tsunade wasn't there, but Shizune said that she would be back in a few hours.

"Meanwhile, could you please fetch some herbs from your family's forest?" Shizune asked him as he left. "Tsunade-sama needs to create an antidote to a new kind of poison from an herb we found in the garden. It's not serious, but it seems that Kiba accidentally came in contact with it, and well...he came down with these large purple and red spots on his face that doesn't seem to do anything, but yet we can't get it off, so we're afraid that there might be some sort of delay reaction in that poison..."

"Sure," he said, and left for the forest.

On the way to the forest, he passed by Hinata, Kiba, and Shino. (He noticed that had purposely worn a jacket with a thick hood to cover his face, but decided to pretend that wearing such a thick winter jacket was normal, and that Kiba had nothing to hide.) They, too, were relaxed, and were walking the gigantic Akamaru down the street. As he walked closer to the edge of his family's property, he tilted his head towards the sun, and while the sun's warm rays bathed his face, he can't help but notice that in the far, far distance, there were looming storm clouds. The wind was picking up ever so slightly, but being one who used to spend long hours lying down and simply observing the clouds and nature; he noticed these small details the nature gave off. There is going to be a large storm, and it is going to hit soon.

He sighed, for it had been such as lovely day, and he just got home. "How troublesome..."

_I'm sorry that the first chapter was so short, but it was kind of like a little introduction, so I promise that I'd write longer next time. :) I'm really busy lately, so don't expect a new chapter until probably next weekend, unfortunately :( Oh, and please do correct me if I ever make any mistakes in my fanfics, because I usually write late night, so my brain doesn't always work properly _


	2. Chapter 2: Hidden Plot Discovered

_Hello again XD Sorry it took so long for this chapter to come out! I've been really busy, and then I got sick, so I didn't have much time to write --;;; This chapter started out kind of weird because I had a little trouble starting it, but it ran smoothly eventually when I reached the fourth page : P (this chapter was 6 pages 0o) Again, please review to tell me if I made some mistakes, or give me feedback. They really brighten up my day :D_

The Cost to be Together

Chapter 2: Hidden Plot Discovered

As Shikamaru came closer and closer into the woods, the steady wind picked up and began to blow strongly towards him, rippling through his hair and forcing him to take a step backwards. Where do these troublesome summer storms come from? he grumbled to himself. Yet these winds were unnatural: perhaps something in the forest was causing them…

…or someone…

Shikamaru sighed. There could no way she could be here, in his family's private forest no less. But Shizune probably would've told him if she was here…

He walked deeper into the forest, fighting back vicious winds that tore through the woods and uprooted plants. He began to hear snatches of voices coming from behind the trees, though it was hard for the wind stole the sound. Flecks of soil and pebbles flew past him and peppered his hand that shielded his face. What on earth was she doing?

Sure enough, as he arrived into the heart of the forests, there was Sabaku no Temari.

Temari had her fan out, and looked more exhausted than he had ever seen. Her opponent was a ninja hidden partially in the trees: he could not get a proper look at him. There were debris everywhere, and Temari was surrounded by fallen kunai and shuriken that she had obviously fended off. The opponent was teetering: he would not last much longer in this fight…

Temari, with her great fan, sent the opponent flying with her next blow of her ferocious winds. The mysterious stranger hit a tree, fell, and was silent and unmoving.

"Well, that was easy…" he heard her say. Apparently, she hadn't noticed him yet.

"By the looks of you, I wouldn't say so…" He smirked.

Temari whipped around in surprise, and was slightly angry that she hadn't noticed Shikamaru sneak up of him.

"What's that suppose to mean?" she demanded, leaning on her fan.

Shikamaru surveyed her. She was covered in scratches, and her clothes were slightly ripped and dirty. It's been a long time since he saw her quite disheveled after as fight.

"If you count the twigs in your hair…" he teased, pulling a few leaves from one of her hair.

Temari swatted his hand. "He was a fire user, so I had a little trouble with my winds. He wasn't anyone too tough though. Besides, I just came back from another mission when I encountered him, so I was a bit low on chakra."

Bit low on chakra? Shikamaru thought. Temari had leveled half the forest. He surveyed her closely, and she did look tired. Her face was pale, and there were slight shadows under her eyes. It didn't help that at this moment she was breathing heavily.

"Are you all right? You look thin…."

"Why? Are you saying I was fat?" she snapped.

Shikamaru smiled to himself. She was fine alright.

Temari walked towards the fallen ninja.

"Hidden mist…and not a missing-nin either…"

Shikamaru joined her and inspected the man. He was around his 30's, and had black hair that drooped over his face. He was wearing a chunnin vest, but he could've been jounin for all he knew. Sure enough, tied around his neck, was a head band of the Hidden Mist.

"What's this…?" Shikamaru picked up a pouch that he the ninja hit when he slammed into the tree. He looked inside and found several kunai, scrolls, letter bombs, and shurikens. He dug deeper, and found an identification. Temari leaned over his shoulder to see what he was looking at.

"Kaitsu Yashiro, 32, Tokubetsu Jounin …" she said out loud as she quickly scanned the document. "….assassination squad…this guy was ANBU!" she yelled in surprise. "S-ranked mission….capture…elite ninjas of other hidden villages…kill if necessary….this guy was out to capture or kill notable ninjas of the other hidden villages!" She looked up at Shikamaru, who was now rummaging through the pouch once more. He pulled out a black book.

"Look at this," he said. He leafed through the book quickly. Sure enough, as he had suspected, it was a bingo book divided into sections based on villages. Pictures of ninjas, along with their descriptions, were listed along the bottom. To his greatest surprise, though, at the bottom of the pages said things like "Disposable" or "Capture", or even "Attempt capture, if not, dispose". There were also assigned squad numbers on the bottom. Shikamaru checked the man's ID again. There was a similar squad number on the bottom, and on some pages where the ninja's picture was crossed out, the numbers matched.

"It's a plot, not from a group, but from the actually village itself," Temari said. "The kage is actually behind this…"

Shikamaru flipped through the Sand's section quickly.

"Gaara's here, but at the bottom is a question mark," he said. He leafed through the Leaf's too. "As I though, Hokage-sama's also marked with a question mark, As is Kakashi-sensei…"

"Meaning that they don't want to take on especially notable ninja's yet?" Temari asked, looking up at Shikamaru. He nodded.

"They probably don't have enough power or strong ninjas to be able to take out people like that. So they settle on other ninja's that are probably easier to take out. From what I can tell, a lot of these ninjas are either jounin or tokubetsu jounin. They want to take out people who play an important role in the village's defense and such. But because they are picking out people from other major villages, they can't move with haste or without caution…"

Temari took the book from him, and leafed through it.

"We need to report this to Tsunade-sama immediately. Let's go." Shikamaru said.

"You're on here."

"Hn?"

"I said, you're on here."

Shikamaru leaned forward and sure enough, there was his own face. He glanced down on his description, but Temari was already reading it out loud.

"Genius, with IQ of 200 or so, expert analysts and strategist. Capture alive if possible. If not, dispose…." her voice trailed off.

"What about you?" he asked. Temari quickly flipped to the Sand's section. "Kankuro and I are both on here, side by side," she said. "In our descriptions, they mentioned that we were siblings with Gaara. There's a question mark on the bottom of our pages, and according to the description it's because of our relations with Gaara. Guess they don't want to anger him…" She glanced up. "That means that you're in more of a danger than I am for now…"

Shikamaru processed what she said.

"If you weren't supposed to be attacked yet, what were you doing attacking him? Were you assigned?"

"No, I don't think anyone outside of the Mist knows about this except us. I was staying in a nearby village for a while, because I was assigned multiple missions that were crucial to the village, and travel would be easier if I didn't have to journey back to Suna after every mission."

So that's why she looked so exhausted, Shikamaru thought.

"On the way back, I heard rumors of a ninja that also stayed around where I was. Apparently, he was injured, so the old woman at the inn allowed him to stay for several weeks. In return, he had to gather herbs for her so she could make some medicine for herself. It seemed that a couple days ago he went into the forest and never came back. I went to investigate, and found the ninja dead. Hiding around was him, and when he saw me, he was so surprised that the first instinct was to attack me. Then it seemed like he recognized me, and he ran for it, so naturally I went after him. Then I chased him here." She nudged the ninja with her feet.

Suddenly, the man stirred. Temari jumped back slightly. He looked up and saw Shikamaru and Temari.

"Come quietly to questioning," Shikamaru said. "We want to ask you about this." He waved the book.

The man's eyes widened and look around nervously.

"None of your comrades are here, so you might as well talk."

The ninja's eyes narrowed, and he grinned maniacally. He ripped open his vest, and to their surprise, he had hidden many explosive letters on his jacket.

"Die."

Shikamaru's brained worked quickly, as the letter bombs, as if in slow motion, lit up. Yet he and Temari were too close to him…

Next thing he knew, there was a huge explosion. He could feel the heat and flames swirl around him. Then there was a heavy force, and in a moment, he slammed against the hard ground, stars floating around his eyes.

The flames and heat died, and when he cleared his head, he noticed that Temari's hand was gripping tightly on his sleeve, and her giant fan was on top of them. She must have been the one that knocked him down in time, and her fan prevented the sparks and debris from injuring them too seriously. She groaned and sat up along with Shikamaru. There were slight burns on her hand that held the fan out, and there was a shallow cut on her heads.

"Geez, do I have to save you every time?" she asked.

Shikamaru surveyed his own body. Except for minor surface injuries, he was okay, though his ankle hurt terribly. It must've twisted when Temari slammed him down. He looked towards the tree, and saw that there was nothing there except a black charred area.

"Damn it, we lost everything in that blast…"

Temari grinned at him. "Slowpoke, " she said, as she drew the book and ID from her obi.

Shikamaru smiled and shook his head. She never ceased to surprise him.

The storm cloud that he'd been expecting finally gave in to its weight, and began to pour water down upon him. He groaned.

"Let's go. We have to report to Tsunade-sama". As he attempted to get up, his ankle gave in and he fell.

"This isn't my day…" Temari kneeled down next to him.

"I should be talking." Shikamaru said, and surveyed his ankle. It must've been more serious than he though. "It's your fault," he complained playfully, just to annoy her. "You shouldn't have slammed me down so hard."

Temari groaned and lifted herself up with her fan. "You should stop complaining. First I saved your life, again, and now I have to support you all the way back too?"

Shikamaru sighed. She isn't going to let this go for a long time.

"Women."

_Another chapter over again! And now I have to work on another one X) It'll probably take another 2 weeks or so, but I'll do it as fast as I can. I normally write late night when I can't sleep, or on Saturdays when I have a break between classes in cram school. Yes, my parents sent me to cram school. : ( I have a 2 hour break, so I have plenty of time to write :p Thanks for reading! 3/11/07- Okay, the next chapter is going to be really really late. This is on the account that the marking period is almost over, and I really need to pull up my grades for English and probably History and probably Geometry. Not that I'm failing, but I really need to get on Principal's List, which is this thing at my school that you get if you get an overall quater number average of 95 or higher. So yeah, I'm working my butt off.  
_


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